Activity Days

Maddie started Activity Days. She had so much fun and she even got a dozen roses as a welcoming gift at her first activity. They learned about the sacrament and got homemade bread.

Weekend Stuff

This weekend was busy but nice family time. Friday there was no school so I took the Girl Scouts on a tour of Commerce Bank. (It's the tallest building in Rock Springs and it's only 4 floors) The girls had a wonderful time and I learned a ton about banks and money that I never knew!

After Girl Scouts I took Maddie and Garen and their friends Kamryn and Austin to the movie Hop. It was pretty cute. Then their friends came over to play for a bit.

Then we were off to Maddie's dress rehearsal for the Ice Skating show.

Saturday we got to sleep in a little then sell Girl Scout cookies while Andy went to his basketball game. From there I went straight to Green River to pick up my bountiful basket. I am loving these bountiful baskets! The fruit and veggies are so yummy and you get tons for the $15!

Then we had Maddie's Ice show (it will have it's own post coming up)

Sunday was also an eventful day because it was my last day as the Primary Secretary and my first day in Young Women's. I've had Primary callings for the last 8 years and haven't been in YW since I was 17 so this will be a new exciting challenge. I get to teach the laurels each Sunday! I will miss Primary very much! My kids didn't know what to do after church without me being right there in the primary room. Maybe I should not tell them where the YW room ,then they will have to run and find Andy after church! haha.

New Primary Classes

We started the New Year off with a great day at church in new primary classes. Maddie started in CTR 7 (which means she's turning 8 this year-yikes!). And Garen moved from a little Sunbeam to a big CTR 4. I worried he would have a hard time with the change in classrooms and teachers but he had no problems and loved his class! Sophie's still in nursery of course but she did move from Junior to Senior nursery! They are growing up so fast! I am so grateful for wonderful primary teachers that make my kids excited to go to class and that teach them so much!!!

Talking to Santa

This morning was our ward Christmas breakfast. There was tons of yummy food, music, a Christmas story and then the special guest arrived. Sophie wanted nothing to do with Santa, she just took a bag of candy and ran off to play.
This year was Garen's first year sitting on Santa's lap. Last year I got him to walk close to Santa and he whispered what he wanted and years before that he bolted crying to the door. This year was different. He was nervous and unsure, but he got up there and told Santa he wanted Rex the dinosaur from Toy Story and Santa said, Ok I will bring you Rex and a doll. Garen quickly corrected him-
hesitant-

engaged in conversation (he even touched his beard)-

Thinking about what she's going to ask for-

"A bike and an Ipod" and Santa responded with I have lots of kids asking for that I might run out before I get to your house-

Whirl Wind Week

I'm surprised how quickly this week has flown by considering all the early mornings and late nights. It started last Saturday morning at about 4:30Am, that is when I got up to got stand in line to get Maddie into some fun and cheap Summer camps. I was done by 10 and was able to get her into lots of fun stuff.
Last Sunday was Stake Conference followed by a meeting with the Stake Primary Presidency.
Monday was usual, teach preschool, run errands, then a Girl Scout meeting that I had to take all 3 kids with me. Lets just say I didn't stay the whole time. We started P90X a little while ago and Andy and I do it together, which means we don't get started on those hour and a half workouts until about 10PM when Andy gets home.
Tuesday I got called to substitute Maddie's first grade class. I always enjoy teaching Maddie's class, but with the bad weather, and no recess, and lots of testing going on those kids were crazy!

From school we headed to ballet, a quick dinner then to Girl Scouts. I had the girls make finger painted cards for their moms, we had an egg hunt and passed out secret pal gifts during which Sophie cried the entire time. Managing 11 little hyper girls and one crying baby is not an easy task.


On Wednesday after teaching preschool, the day was spend pricing box after box of garage sale items. I didn't finish until about 1AM.
Thursday was crazy hair day at Maddie's school-

I tried to catch up on a very messy house that had been neglected all week. Maddie had ballet pictures so we di hair, makeup, costume, and took Garen and Sophie to the babysitter. Then all Thursday night was spent at friend Amanda's house preparing for the garage sale the next morning. I finally hoped into bed about midnight

Friday started bright and early at 5:45AM. We got all the garage sale stuff out and ready to sell. It was a cold morning but we were just glad there was no snow or rain or deathly wind! The day was busy and we sold a ton.

Saturday was day two of the garage sale. Another early morning and long day selling, taking care of the kids, cleaning up all the left over stuff and finally preparing for Primary on Sunday.

Maddie

I asked Maddie if she wanted to teach Family Home Evening last night. She excitedly agreed. She didn't want one bit of help. So she went up to her room for the next 30 minutes to prepare. When it came lesson time, Maddie gave us a full account of Christs life, death, and Resurrection without missing a single detail. She had all the pictures in the right order and she had made her own picture for each part of the story to give us some more details. I was completely impressed. We never told her what topic to do, what stuff to use, and we didn't help with any part of the story. I guess Maddie really is listening to us and her primary teachers!

Sunday

Yesterday was a good Sunday. Andy was home and got to come to church with us. We were early for church, Garen went to primary with no crying, Andy too Sophie into nursery for a bit and she loved it, I got to spend time with my wonderful primary presidency.
After church Andy helped me clear out our basement for our upcoming garage sale, had a yummy crockpot dinner that took very little preparation, took a lovely walk along the Green River loop, played at the park, had family home evening followed by a root beer float. What a wonderful day!

Ward Easter Egg hunt and Breakfast

This morning I took the kids to our ward Easter Brunch. The food was great the kids had a wonderful time even though they didn't find as many eggs as they wanted. Maddie came out a bit late and only got one egg but her friends were very nice and everyone was offering her some of theirs. I wish Andy could have joined us, but we had a good time anyway.

To some it may look strange finding eggs in the snow, but we were just happy the wind wasn't blowing like crazy-

Checking out their treats-

Purple Pretties, and a handsome little boy

Even with their cuteness, today was hard. With Andy gone working, Sophie was loud in sacrament meeting, Garen needed to go potty which meant I had to drag him and Sophie out and Maddie decided to follow behind. I think I heard a total of 5 minutes of the talks given today.
Garen refused to go to primary and not a quiet refusal. He screamed, he cried, he ran out the doors. This went on for the entire first hour while I tried to fulfill my Primary responsibilities and while Sophie kept darting off or pulling things out of the Primary closet.

I am thankful for the sister that walked down the hall, saw me struggling with Sophie while trying to get Garen to stop crying, and smiled and said, "Don't worry you will get double the blessings for coming to church today." I think that got me through the last hour of church.

Now we are home and I get to look at my cute pictures of my sweet kids and forget how hard church was today.

New Classes!

Maddie is now in Senior Primary because our Jr. primary is so big they bumped her class up. She is in CTR 6 (six year olds turning 7). Her new teacher was gone today but she loved her sub. Garen made a huge transition from Nursery to Sunbeam. At first he didn't want to sit with his class or sit by any girls, but he warmed up quickly and enjoyed the rest of his time in his new Sunbeam class!
I can't believe I have two kids in primary and one going to nursery in a few months!

Sunday

I dressed the kids in their Christmas plaids for church today and snapped a few quick pictures when we got home from church.
Maddie gave a great talk in Primary today about thinking of Jesus and Choosing the Right. She's to funny up there clearing her throat and fixing the microphone.